• Closed • The Life of a Rebel [Burning Mountains]

[Zvezdana Venora]

45th of Vhalar, 716
Jorick’s Keep

It wasn’t enough that she had a bun in the oven. Blackwood was expecting that she begin to pull her weight, which was growing with each trial. The Qe’Dreki forces had become scattered and were attempting to regroup at Jorick’s Keep. Those that were stationed here were tending to those that had been injured and training those that had to be moved up in the ranks due to heavy losses sustained in Andaris. Many well trained soldiers had been lost, both to the Iron Hand and the demon that had been rumored to appear out of nowhere. Zvezdana’s stomach flipped, a grumble of hunger echoing the thought of the demon. For the most part, the beast had remained dormant. There had been little stimulation to evoke the beast.

With the beast lying unprovoked within her, Zvezdana was able to focus on the tasks she had been given. Vivian had given her a beautiful bow for her birthday. It made sense for her to pick up a ranged weapon. She could practice her skills with it while protecting the baby and serving as a Qe’Dreki rebel. It still irked her greatly that she would not be allowed to train with her sword, but she had been directly forbidden to do anything related to melee or unarmed combat. The baby was to be her top priority. If Veljorn were still alive, she would be sitting up in her room, pampered by servants and waited on in the Rynmere castle.

If Veljorn were alive. The thought made her instantly glum. The baby would be raised without a father, and quite possibly without a mother if the demon had its way with her. On top of that, what would occur if the baby was born and the demon attempted to come out? Would she be strong enough to save her own child? The thought was sickening. What if she wasn’t strong enough and she lost the last thing that tied her to Veljorn? She would be devastated. Not even Vivian could bring her back from that.

“Knock your arrows!”

Sonny, the efst bogi vinr, commanded all of those working on ranged combat this day. Zvezdana picked up a arrow from the standing quiver on the ground, snapping it onto the bowstring. She set the arrow on the rest.

“Ready!”

Zvezdana lifted the point of the arrow, pulling the bowstring to her ear as she had been taught just breaks prior. The belly of the bow bent towards her, the limbs bending generously. Her arms shook slightly, already predicting that Sonny was going to make them hold this position for a short time to build up their strength and muscle memory. This process had been continuous. Prepare the ammo, hold the bow position, aim, fire. Repeat. The men around her were capable of holding the stance much longer than she could. Some had an eye for the kill, landing arrow after arrow into the target placed against the wall. Others, were on her level of competency. The fletching of the bow tickled her cheek as her fingers twitched in agony, threatening to let go of the arrow.

Twang

An arrow was loosed prior to the command, veering just left of the target. Curses came from the soldier next to her. With a shaky breath, she released her tension on her bow, lowering her weapon. Here it comes.

“What in the Sevens name do you think you are doing boy!” Sonny came storming over to the lad, screaming at him. “You just let the enemy know where we are! You gave away the position of your comrades! You got your friends killed! What do you have to say for yourself?!”

The young man quivered under the Vinr’s gaze. He said nothing, as the last time this had occurred, someone had tried to apologize. That only elicited another short rant from the man about how sorry wasn’t enough and wouldn’t bring your comrades back. Blah blah blah. Zvezdana rolled her eyes. So far it hadn’t been her, but with every repeat motion, it would only be a few bits more before she accidentally loosed an arrow at the incorrect moment.

“Take a break! You louts need to work on your endurance. War won’t let you take a break in the middle of a battle.”

Word Count: 717

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian's rapier flashed in the sunlight, the blade of the masterwork sword dancing past the guard of one of the younger Qe'Dreki recruits to tap against his shoulder. She had been ordered by Zvezdana to improve her skills as best she could, and while she suspected that this order might in part have root in the fact Zvezdana herself now had to train, Vivian knew that her Queen was right, the more skilled she was the better it would be for everyone. And thus she had dutifully reported to the training field. However, most of the more established Qe'Dreki had partnered already and she had found herself partnering against half-trained recruits who had more zeal than skill.

The boy, hardly a man yet, she was sparring with turned red with a mix of embarrassment and anger at the tap and launched into a wild flurry of attacks with heavy wooden sword he was using. She had wondered at the restriction he was under at the start of things, but now it was very clear what the problem was. An uncontrolled outburst like that could badly injure someone, most likely the boy himself. Worse yet, the erratic burst probably felt fast and powerful to her opponent, but it was badly telegraphed and Vivian was able to parry each attack with ease, relying on a mixture of deflecting blows with her rapier and blocking them with her shield.

After a few Trills, the boy launched a heavy attack at her, one of those moves that would split an opponent in two if they hit but were so telegraphed and slow that the enemy had to be badly stunned for the technique to have any chance of connecting. Vivian's response was an old move she had learned from her mentor. Shield first, she rushed the boy and hit him hard in the stomach, interrupting his inept attack. Stepping back as she recovered, she followed up with a backhand that had her buckler impacting the side of his head. Already off balance, the boy fell to the ground and Vivian had the point of her rapier at his throat before he could get back up.

"That's why you don't make wild attacks like that, kid. Could get you killed quick and in a hurry." she said, sheathing her rapier and helping the boy back to his feet. "Go rest." she said, noticing how out of breath her opponent was. The boy nodded and, blushing furiously, walked over to the benches to rest. Vivian herself wasn't tired yet and looked around, seeking another sparring partner. However, as she looked about, she noticed that the archers were taking a rest, Zvezdana included. Her friend looked tired, but otherwise as well as she could be expected too, between the loss of her husband, the demon inside her, and the baby that was also inside her, albeit in a different fashion from the demon. Or at least, she hoped it was a different fashion.

Walking over to the water barrel, Vivian got two of the cups and filled them before walking over to Zvezdana. "Here." she said, handing her Queen one of the cups. "How's the bow working out for you?" she asked, genuinely curious about how Zvezdana was finding the weapon. Vivian had gotten the bow made specifically for Zvezdana, but it was important to see how the weapon was actually holding up to use, after all.

Word count: 571

[Seira Shiryu]

Seira was bored. Bored, bored, bored. She felt restless, and uneasy. Restless because she had been cooped up in this room for quite some time now. Sure, she had the run of the keep. And she did what she could to make herself useful in any way that she could. But somehow, no matter where she went in the keep, she always felt that she was in the way. She was used to going where she wanted to when she wanted to...and she just didn't feel that she had the right to do that here. And she felt uneasy because there wasn't anything she could do to help out right now. When she couldn't be useful...couldn't do anything to justify her presence in the keep...she felt useless. Seri felt the same way that she did.

In the vain hope of doing something...anything to relieve her boredom, Seira got the drum she'd bought shortly before her entire life changed for the better. This drum was a very different instrument than the hang drum that she loved so much. She hadn't learned how to play it yet. But she had learned a few things. This kind of drum was played by beating the surface of the instrument with a thin wooden stick. Where you hit the surface changed the sound that was made. So did the amount of force that was used when striking the drum. The speed used when hitting the drum seemed to have an effect as well. A rapid strike created a lighter, crisp sound while a slower one produced a heavier sound that seemed to echo for a few trills before fading. She didn't know which note was which when played on this kind of drum, but she at least realized that the different sounds were the different notes that could be played on it. That much was the same as her hang drum. Or, for that matter, the fiddle, or any other instrument. However it was played, every song was made up of individual notes. And the notes were the same no matter what instrument they were played on, or how differently they sounded when played on the different instruments.

Seira began beating the drum softly, using as little pressure as she could, and still make a sound. That was another thing; the harder you hit the drum, the louder the sound that resulted. At first, there was little rhyme or reason to how she beat the drum. But gradually, she began playing it to the beat of her own heart. The lost herself in what she was doing so completely that she jumped when the door opened, and Seri entered the room. The drumstick fell out of her hand, and hit the surface of the drum.. The loud, sharp retort that filled the room as a result made Seira jump again. She stared at the drum with wide eyes for several trills. Then she frowned thoughtfully.

Word Count: 490

[Zvezdana Venora]

Zvezdana was sitting on a bench by herself. Despite training with them, the others did not classify her as a soldier. She was a pregnant woman and nothing more to them. The lower limb of her bow was settling in the fine dirt as she undid the bowstring from the top notch. It was best to give the wood a break from the stress. Keeping it bent during time that it was not needed took away the strength of the wood. It would form to being bent if it was not given a break. The wood was gently leaned against the bench she was sitting on, the string allowed to hang over the seat.

She had caught a glimpse of Vivian earlier, training with a younger soldier. Vivian had been resistant to the words of the Qe'Dreki superiors. With little effort, Zvezdana had issued the command that Vivian train. She needed her right hand to be in shape. She had been happy to see the woman working as per her request. Zvezdana turned to look for her now, but the spar had ended. Unable to find her friend, whom was busy getting water, she looked to her hands. Blisters had begun to bubble up from where she had held the grip. Even with a well crafted bow, she had noblewoman's hands. They had never held a weapon with such vigor before. Now, with pain ripping through her skin as she pressed on the pinkened flesh and bubbled skin, she began to realize just how far she had fallen. She was to be a soldier now, used by the superior for war and death. They did not care about her. They cared about the baby inside of her. Once he was born, she feared they would dispose of her.

She was no longer a queen, but a peasant. It stung more than the blisters in her hand.

The word seemed gentle, reminding her that at least one person cared. Zvezdana accepted the cup of water, holding it gingerly in her fingers so that she would avoid her palms. "It suits me well. I am sure that it is not the bow that does not strike the target true. If only I could be a better marksmen. Killing from a distance would be far more suitable in my condition," Zvezdana stated calmly, setting the cup down to rub her belly. "How goes your training?"

Word Count: 402

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian looked at Zvezdana's bow and smiled slightly, glad to see that the bow was working to her specifications. "I'm glad to hear it. I'd hate to have gotten you a bow that doesn't work. And yeah, archery isn't easy. I'm not very good at it myself." she said, with a slight grin, sitting down next to her friend. "My training is...progressing. They don't trust me very well here, I don't think." she said, before shrugging slightly and taking a look at Zvezdana's hands. "You need to get some gloves, Zvez. You keep shooting without them, you'll slice open your hands. And padded ones will help with the blisters. Did they at least give you a bracer to wear when you're firing your bow? Or a padded armguard of some sort?" she asked, her tone suddenly getting a little sharp near the end. Vivian knew from experience that archery was a dangerous thing to go at without proper protection.

Looking down at her hands, Vivian thought back to the last time she had trained with Zvezdana. Things had been so much simpler then, for both of them. Zvezdana was simply Lazuli's etiquette tutor and Vivian had been an Airman, a soldier who dreamed of the skies. All this time later and to Vivian's now more jaded mind, they both seemed to have been children at the time. Now, they had both fallen far from the skies she had dreamed of, hitting the ground with a brutal dose of reality. They had lost nearly everything, their position, their families, their initial ambitions. Weaker mortals would have given up in the state the two of them were in at the moment. But the two of them, they were stronger than that, they were down but not out. Not yet.

Reaching over, Vivian set her hand on Zvezdana's shoulder. "Hey, we're not done yet, Zvez. Blackwood may have forgotten who you are, but he'll remember. And Cassander thinks he's beaten us, but all he's done is piss us both off. I don't plan to stop until his head is on a pike and you're sitting on your throne where you belong. And I don't think you will either." she said, her tone confident before shre grinned at her friend and patted her shoulder before taking a drink of her water. "Of course, it would be easier if you could just snipe him through a window or something like that." she said, laughing slightly as she spoke. "Of course, I'll have to get you in range and away safely, so I suppose I can't relax too much either. And we have to deal with...you know what I mean." she said, before a sudden thought occurred to her that made her laugh. "Maybe we can just kill Syroa while we're saving the world. She can't be that hard, after all." she said, her tone clearly joking, though her words were at least half serious. Killing Syroa was the only thing Vivian could think of that would remove Zvezdana's curse.

Word count: 506

[Seira Shiryu]

After several bits, Seira tried to recreate the sound. This time, instead of dropping the drumstick, she hit the surface of the drum with it sharply. It produced a loud, crisp sound that seemed to linger in the air for several trills before fading away. Seira jumped when someone knocked on the door. The only people she trusted in the keep aside from her sister were Vivian, and Zvezdana. Zvezdana was the leader of the Qe'dreki...sort of, anyway. Seira didn't really understand everything that was involved, but she did know that Zvezdana wold be far too busy to visit her and Seri. Vivian came to check up on them often, but Seira seemed to remember her telling them that she'd be busy until later this evening. So it wasn't likely to be Vivian, either.

Seira eyed the door warily for a few more trills before getting up to answer it. A woman stood on the other side.

"I know that you think you're some kind of bard, but all you're doing is making a horrible racket! I just got my son down for his nap, and you had to go and wake him up again! It'll take me breaks to get him settled down again!" she scolded Seira sharply.

"I'm sorry. ma'am." she muttered softly.

The woman's expression softened a bit, but her tone remained firm.

"I understand that as a bard, you need to practice. But can you please go do it somewhere else?"

Seira nodded. When the woman left, she gathered up her drum, some paper, and her pen. She stopped long enough to write a quick note for Seri in case she returned before Seira did. Then she made her way through the keep until she came to the main gate. Once outside, she found an out of the way spot where she wasn't likely to disturb anyone.

Sound carries. she mused.

Seira tried hitting the drum repeatedly, using different amounts of force each time.

"What are you doing? And why are you way out here? Shouldn't you be back in our room?"

Seira looked up at her twin, her mind racing with the beginning of an idea.

"One of the women asked me to go practice somewhere else, so I did. Do you want to help me?"

"Sure. But you know I can't play that kind of drum. How can I help?"

"I want you to go that way, slowly, while I beat the drum. Then come back and tell me how far you got before you couldn't hear me playing anymore."

Seri gave her twin an odd look, but she agreed. When Seira started beating the drum again, Seri began walking away slowly. Before long, Seira couldn't see her sister anymore. After a while, Seri returned, looking surprised.

"I got a lot farther away than I thought I would before I stopped hearing you play. I can see why that woman asked you to go play somewhere else now. Why did you want me to do that?"

"It's like you said. The sound of a drum carries a long way. What if...what if you could talk to people that way?"

Seri looked confused, so Seira paused to try and figure out how to explain it.

"Well...the Qe'dreki go out on patrols, right?"

Seri nodded.

"What if the patrols had a way to talk to each other, and to someone here at the keep...all without having to send messengers?"

Seri stared at her twin.

"And how are they going to do that?"

"With drums! You just saw how far the sound carries, didn't you? If the patrols stayed within an area where they could hear the drum of another group, then they could communicate that way. And they could pass messages over great distances. One person would start by sending a message. The nearest drummer would hear it, and pass it on. And so on. The patrol group that was farthest from the keep could send messages to the keep via drum!"

"But...how? Drums play music, Seira. They can't talk."

"Sure they can! Look, if you assign each note a different letter, and have one person with each group learn how to play a drum, and learn what note means what letter, you can send messages! Ones that an enemy can't intercept the way they could with a messenger."

"If the Qe'dreki can hear the drum message, then an enemy would be able to, too." Seri protested.

"Yes, but would they be able to understand what was being "said?" No. All they'd hear is someone playing a drum. Even if they guessed it was some kind of message, they'd have no way of understanding it. Especially if we created more than one code. Then the Qe'dreki could change the codes they use on a regular basis to make it even harder for an enemy to figure out what they mean." Seira said with a grin.

If she was right about this...she had just found a way she could really make herself useful.

Word count 837.

[Zvezdana Venora]

Zvezdana looked back down at her raw hands. Gloves probably would help, but having callused hands would also be helpful. She was too soft for this. Absently, she rubbed them while Vivian continued to talk. They had not given her a padded arm guard yet, but it was something she should probably consider in the future. Bowstrings could be quite dangerous. She had seen some of the other men with their scarred arms where a bow had been tightened and misfired. People had suffered skinned forearms before of the strength behind a released bowstring. Zvezdana winced. She suspected that would hurt significantly.

At Vivian’s mention of Syroa, Zvezdana felt her skin prickle. Killing an Immortal was a treacherous task Zvezdana was not even sure could be accomplished? How does one kill an Immortal? It couldn’t possibly be as easy as murdering a mortal being. Mortals were simply fleshy bags of organs. Hit the right spot and they bled like a stuck pig. She doubted that Syroa would be that easy to kill. Before she could continue her conversation, the Vinr called out.

“Alright louts! Get up and get to work!”

“Looks like Sonny isn’t done with us yet. Best get back to work yourself Vivian. Those men could use your expertise with a rapier. Maybe your teachings will save one of their lives down the road,” Zvezdana stated calmly, picking up her unstrung bow and moving back towards the archery field.

Once in her spot, she grabbed the unstrung end of the bowstring. This part always took a little effort as her strength was not as great as the men around her. With the lower limb of the bow dug into the ground alongside the inner part of her foot, she pulled the upper limb down. She stretched the bowstring as far as she could, looping it around the notch in the upper limb. It took her several more trills than most other bowmen, who snapped the string on with little effort. Once her bow was ready, she checked the string to make sure it was not twisted randomly and plucked it to ensure that it would not pop off the notch. With everything where it should be, she proceeded to line-up with the other.

The pain emanated from her palms, reminding her that the blisters threatened to pop. She kicked at the dirt in her boots, running her foot back and forth to make a little lip. Zvezdana than placed her left leg forward into the notch, setting her right foot behind her. Her feet were placed at shoulder with, the left foot pointed forward and the right food perpendicular to the left. A solid stance with her weight centered above her feet.

“Knock!”

Again she picked up an arrow from her standing quiver, latching it onto the bowstring and setting it on the arrow rest. The Vinr called for them to pull back, a command which she obeyed. Right hand was pulled all the way back to her ear, the fletching of the arrow just barely touching her cheek. Hold. Hold…

“Fire!”

Fingers relaxed as she let the bowstring go, exhaling during the process. The arrow whizzed straight, but her aim was way off. Instead of landing in the hay stuffed target, it zoomed into the wooden wall behind it.

“Figures.”

Word Count: 552

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian looked up at the archery instructor with a cold expression, but nodded when Zvezdana toldher to return to her own training. "All right. Watch your arm. Don't want to see it get skinned off." she said as she stood up and walked back over to the melee weapon training arena.There, she found that her previous opponent had finished his rest as well. "All right then, get over here. Let's see if you learned anything from our last match." she said, drawing her rapier as she stepped into the training ring they had been using.

The boy joined her after a moment, his own sword drawn. It appeared he had learned something from their last match as he was much less eager to attack her. In response to this increased caution, Vivian adopted a much more aggressive strategy than she had been using. A quick thrust was blocked, but Vivian used to the momentum from the thrust and turned it into a shoulder rush that hit the boy hard in the chest, pushing him back. A quick slash with her rapier followed this, opening a slice on his padded training tunic.

The boy fell back a step to put some room between himself and Vivian, a move that was actually well done, but then ruined it by immediately rushing forward again, attempting to land a heavy blow. The technique wasn't, in and of itself, a terribly one, but Vivian had never seen it work against an opponent that hadn't been pulled badly out of position by the dodge that opened the move. In this case, Vivian had already been pulling back into place from her slash and a better move would have been to duplicate her own shoulder barge, which would have knocked her off balance.

In this case, Vivian just stepped back just as his blow was to land, countering the boys technique herself to show him how it was to be done properly. Instead of landing a heavy blow with her rapier, however, she instead rushed with her shield, trapping his wooden training sword between her shield and his body. His offense cut off, she was able to put the point of her rapier to his side, a move that would likely pierce a major organ if she were to thrust.

Stepping back, Vivian let her opponent regain his balance. "Never rush like that unless your opponent is off balance, or you'll likely wind up off balance yourself. You do something like that on a battlefield, all you'll do is get yourself killed." she said, her tone calm but serious. She didn't want to see someone she had trained with get killed due to his own stupidity. While she was here, she figured she might as well try to improve his chances. "Let's keep going." she said, pulling back into her own ready stance. The boy did the same and they began another sparring match.

Word count: 487

[Seira Shiryu]

"I think you're really onto something here." Seri said excitedly.

Seira grinned. If she could pull this off, then she would prove to the Qe'dreki that they were more than useless burdens. That they weren't just stupid kids that they had to take care of. They might even make Vivian proud of them...and Seira wanted that more than she cared to admit. It was a strange feeling, wanting the approval of an adult. Or of anyone other that Seri, for that matter. Usually, she couldn't care less what anyone thought of them as long as they didn't hurt them. But this new desire for approval from Vivian, and to a lesser extent, from Zvezdana was a powerful feeling, and one that couldn't be denied. A look at her twin told Seira that Seri felt the same way.

"So how do we do this?" Seri asked, eyes fierce with determination.

"Well, it would be easier if we knew which sound was which note on this kind of drum, but the first thing we need to do is assign a letter to each sound."

"But Seira...there are only seven notes. A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. There are twenty six letters. Even if you used sharps, and flats, that wouldn't give you enough sounds to assign one to each letter."

Seira gave the matter some thought.

"We'll have to assign more than one letter to each note, then. A through E can represent four letters each, and the others can be used for three letters each. That would give us sounds for all twenty six letters. And you'd know which letter was meant by the number of times the note was played in a row."

"That might work. But what about words that have the same letter twice in a row. Like letter, for example."

"Well...you'd still know by how many times the note was played. So, if A represents four letters, that would be A through D. B would be E through H. C would be I through L. D would be M through P. E would be Q through T. F would be U, V, and W. And G would mean the last three letters of the alphabet. So to spell letter in the drum code, you'd play C four times, B four time, E eight times, B four times, and end with playing E two times."

Seri grinned.

"I get it now."

Seri frowned thoughtfully.

"We'd also need a rest code between each word. A pause could probably work for that if the pause was a set amount of time. Maybe a five trill pause between each word? We'd need a start sequence, too; something to let someone know a message was coming. And we'd need an end sequence to tell them the message was over. too. To change the code, all you'd need to do was change which note represented each letter. Have E mean A through D instead of A, for example."

"Couldn't the start and end sequence be the same thing?" Seri wondered.

Seira nodded slowly,

"It could, yes. And it probably should, for that matter. Keep it as simple as possible to make it easier for people to learn. But there should probably be a different sequence to tell people if the message is an urgent one. And a short hand code would be good, too. We could create sequences to mean simple concepts. Like...maybe AC could mean "all clear." So you'd play A once, give a five trill pause, then play it again three times. Playing a sequence louder than the others could be used to empathize it."

"I think we need to learn how to play the different notes on this kind of drum. Jarvis said he knew how to play one, didn't he?"

"I think so...let's go find out."

Jarvis was a young soldier who wasn't that much older than the girls. One of the sons of a Qe'dreki, he believed the same thing his father did, so he had pleaded with his father to let him join. But because he was so young and inexperienced, he spent the time he wasn't training by looking after the civilians. Jarvis usually made it a point to check on Seira and Seri several times a day.

They found him walking towards their room. When they caught up with him, he smiled.

"What are you two up to? I was just coming to check on you guys."

"You said that you know how to play a drum, right? This kind of drum?" Seira said eagerly, as she showed the older boy her drum.

Jarvis chuckled.

"Let me guess. You want a lesson?"

The two girls nodded so eagerly that Jarvis laughed.

"I think I can arrange that. I have some free time now. What did you guys want to learn?"

"How to play the basic notes. If we know that, we can start working out how to play songs on the drum."

"Well, I can show you how to play the basic notes, but you'll still need to practice a lot on your own before you really get the hang of it, you know. Just because you know how to play other instruments doesn't mean that learning this one will be easy for you."

Seira nodded, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the warning. She was a bard. She knew how hard it was to truly learn the ins and outs of a new instrument. But that wasn't what she wanted to do here. Not right now, at least.

"We know." she said simply.

"Okay, then. Let me go get my drum, and we can go somewhere to practice, okay?"

It didn't take long for Jarvis to return with his drum, and when he did, Seira and Seri led him back to where they had been practicing earlier. Jarvis showed them how to play an A note. Seira used her drum to try and copy what he did. He corrected her, and she tried again. This time, she had a little more success. And after several bits, she could reproduce the note consistently, if hesitantly. Then it was Seri's turn to learn. She took a little longer to pick it up than Seira had. Of the two, Seri tended to pick up the basics faster than Seira herself did when learning a new instrument. But once she did get the basics down, Seira tended to become comfortable with an instrument faster than Seri did.

Jarvis taught them the basic notes one by one, correcting the girls as needed. When they started getting the hang of it, he grinned.

"You girls are picking this up faster than I thought you would. It's going to take a lot of hard work, and practice to go from this to really being able to play the drum, but it is a good start. I have hunting duty, so I've got to get going. Keep practicing, okay?"

"We will." Seira promised.

"Thanks again!"

Seira and Seri watched him leave. Then they exchanged glances, and grinned excitedly.

"Come on. Let's go find Vivian! I can't wait to tell her about this!" Seira exclaimed.

The two girls raced off, in search of Vivian.


Word count: 1205

[Zvezdana Venora]

"Knock!"

Practice made permanent. All she had to do was continue trying, and she would soon be able to show the soldiers that she was the rightful queen. They had to see that she worked hard for the same ideas that they did. She carried the heir to the original king in her belly. She had pledged herself to the cause. Zvezdana would see Cassander bow before her just before she commanded his head be removed from his shoulders for killing her king. She would simply have to get stronger. Stronger not only for herself, but for the men and women that believed in the Qe'Dreki. Stronger for Vivian and Seira, who had given up so much for her.

“Ready!”

Her muscles screamed. They had been going at this for about a break now. The fletching tickled her cheek again and again with each arrow that she held their. The motion became second nature, despite her weakening endurance. She shook, the bow wobbling in her grasp. The bowstring wiggled because her hand wouldn't hold steady. Don't let go. Don't let -

TWANG.

The grip on her bowstring slipped and the arrow was loosed towards the target. It sank into the white edge of the confined hay, sinking in solidly. Well, if there was one good thing about what was going to happen, it was the fact she had list hit the target once today. A slow clap followed as the other soldier's lowered their bows in preparation for the emotional torture that was about to occur. The Vinr walked over slowly to Zvezdana, who stared hard at the wall.

"I was wondering when you would screw up woman. You held out longer than I anticipated," Sonny growled, folding his arms over his chest when he was right next to her. Zvezdana gave him an angry side glance, which was not seen by the rest of the soldiers. "A lady such as yourself should not be behind a bow. You do not deserve to be a leader. You are weak and untrustworthy. Blackwood is only protecting you for that spawn you carry. Veljorn's blood will carry that child through life, not yours."

Sonny was practically whispering the words into her ear. Like a toxin, they caused her heart to tighten. If she wasn't holding her breath at that moment, she would have been pulling in shallow breaths. His final words were a little lighter, and softer, as if he really didn't want anyone to hear. "I hate you for not protecting my king. I will never trust you." The Vinr stepped back, Zvezdana's color fading from her cheeks. He raised his hand and lowered it sharply.

"Dismissed!"

The soldiers dispersed, but Zvezdana remained their with her head hung. She was shaking with exhaustion and rage. The beast within her growled and paced, suddenly awake with this recent realization. The Qe'Dreki didn't love her. They never loved her. They only supported her position because Veljorn loved her. Now he was gone. Slowly, she turned to go back to the bench where she busied herself with unstringing her bow. There, she waited for Vivian to finish her training. Maybe they would be interested in dining together. People that actually cared about her.

Word Count: 539